Currently existing rattan products, such as rattan chairs, are usually hand-weaved, in which workers must have certain rattan weaving skills, and individual weaving skill levels also have a great impact on product quality. In the meantime, hand-weaving also requires much time and efforts so that the production cost is very high. At present, machine weaving can only weave flat rattan structures, and there is no better solution in the industry to effectively make rattan products from flat rattan structures. The major reason is that for a machine weaving rattan structure, its edge can hardly be secured to a skeleton of an existing table, chair or other furniture. If a hand-weaving method is applied, it would be very labor-intensive and high in cost; if a sewing method is applied, strength would be much lower than that of a typical hand-weaved rattan structure, and once a suture is broken, the structure of the entire rattan product could also break.
Furthermore, rattan products on the market are mostly manufactured by using plastic rattan, mainly because of the high cost of natural rattan, influences by its production seasons and limited quantity. In order to increase weaving speed and reduce labor consumption, a machine flat weaving technology is introduced to the rattan weaving industry. In order to install and secure rattan products made by flat weaving, convex knots must be made at the edge of the rattan weaving products. The convex knots are then embedded into an internal cavity of the skeleton of an existing table, chair or other furniture to complete the installation and fixation process.
Plastic rattan is made from a material of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). This material is of poor heat resistance (heat distortion temperature), poor formability, and thus it is not suitable for direct contact with high temperature, which may cause deformation, carbonization and nigrescence, as well as fragile in texture. If the convex knots are made by hand-weaving, the production process would be time-consuming and costly.